目を閉じても光は見えるよ

by Maki Marukido, 丸木戸マキ

人気AV男優の仁はある日、ゲイビ出演の話を持ちかけられた。
そこで出会ったネコ男優の光と体の相性がよかったため、ふたりはバディを組み、頻繁に共演することになる。
仁と光のバディは人気を集め、順調に売れていたが、実際は仕事上の体の関係だけでお互いのプライベートのことは全く知らなかった。
しかしある時、ふたりは同じマンションに住んでいることが判明し…。

フィクションの中から生まれる、ノンフィクションの愛を描いた感動作。

光の過去を描いた、丸木戸マキデビュー作「水曜の朝、午前3時30分」も収録！

Genres: Manga, Boys Love, Queer

216 pages, Comic

First published December 25, 2017

About the author

Name (in native language) : 丸木戸マキ

Reviews

[Sollenbum · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Even if You Close Your Eyes, You Can See the Light” by Maki Marukido is set in the world of adult entertainment in Japan with an insight into the buddy system and managers running the company. The business aspect is shown with humour but also an alarming honesty in how fan service and the job itself are difficult to differentiate from real emotions. Jin and Hikaru are the top couple for Cherry Bonbon and they are reliable as well as fan favourites but they are also human beings with backstories. It turns out that Jin has a son because he was tricked in an earlier relationship and Hikaru has a dark past that comes back to haunt both him and the company.

It is a refreshing look at an unsavory industry but the main couple have agency and are are survivors rather than victims.

There is a fair level of spice and some of it is a little explicit although never lewd. Also these scenes serve a purpose in the plot and there is variation, depending on the context and stage of the main couple’s relationship.

[MaDoReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leído en Futekiya.
Soy una gran fan de Marukido Maki, y este manga no ha sido menos que sus otras obras, me ha gustado mucho.
Ambientada en el mundo del porno, es una historia preciosa no exenta de sombras. Recomendable.

[Shakera✿✿✿ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting relationship between two a.v actors.

[Milagros Guevara Bernabé · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐(2.1)

Resumen:

1️⃣ Dos actores de AV tienen que trabajar juntos. Jin, acostumbrado a cambiar de pareja constantemente, tiene buena química con su nuevo compañero Hikaru. Debido a que sus videos venden bien, se convierten en una "pareja" a largo plazo en la ficción, pero por casualidad descubren que viven en el mismo edificio.

2️⃣ Poco a poco se revelan los pasados de los protagonistas. Comenzando con Jin, quien tiene un hijo con su exesposa, también actriz de la industria. Ambos tienen una mala relación porque Jin nunca quiso tenerlo. Gracias a Hikaru y el enamoramiento que su hijo tiene por él, logran llevarse mejor.

3️⃣ Terminamos conociendo la historia de Hikaru, quien apuñaló a su hermano con la ayuda de su amigo/amante. Escapan juntos, pero finalmente son capturados y se le prohíbe a Hikaru volver a verlo. En un estado de depresión, Hikaru se involucra en el mundo de los videos para adultos. Después de ciertos rumores sobre su pasado y de renunciar a este trabajo, decide volver y ser la pareja de Jin.

Lo bueno:

✅️ La personalidad de Hikaru y cómo, a pesar de su trágico pasado, logra salir adelante.
✅️ Kan, el amante anterior de Hikaru y cómo lo ayudó a escapar del infierno en el que vivía con su hermano.
✅️ El enamoramiento que el hijo de Jin tiene por Hikaru (hasta hubo un beso).

Lo malo:

⛔️ Hay personajes adicionales que solo agregan drama a la trama, como el compañero delator.
⛔️ El ritmo de la historia es lento, y los detalles se revelan poco a poco hasta que, de repente, se mencionan asesinatos y abuso.
⛔️ Nunca se siente que Jin realmente ame a Hikaru. Creo que incluso el hijo y Kan tuvieron una química mayor con Hikaru en un par de páginas que Jin en toda la serie.

[Ester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Menuda masterpiece acabo de leer, señoras y señores gracias a Futukeiya!!!!! Soy fan de Marukido desde que leí Pornographer (que volveré a leer en breve) y tenía muchas ganas de leer más cosas suyas. Así que estaba deseando suscribirme a esta web para leer manga bl online y poder leer este manga e Indigo. El caso es que me parece un crimen que NADIE haya licenciado esta obra en PAPEL. Fatal.

Even if you close your eyes you can see the light (título en inglés) es un tomo único que nos presenta a Jin y Hikaru dos actores porno que empezarán ha ser pareja en el trabajo para hacer vídeos porno gay destinados al público femenino. Aunque el argumento pueda parecer bastante trillado, no lo es, ya que Marukido nos mete un pedazo de plot incredible donde hay de todo y, en verdad, inesperado per muy bien integrado. Marukido sabe mezclar el erotismo y el drama de una forma muy equilibrada y contar un trama con personajes realistas y con los que podemos empatizar y querer.

Ha sido maravilloso de principio a fin, un manga que os recomiendo mucho si podéis acceder a Futukeiya y leer en inglés porque no os vais a arrepentir.

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew this story probably wasn't going to be for me, but I was trying to bump my Kinokuniya cart into free shipping, and I did love Walk on Water , which was also set in the adult film industry world. So I thought it might have potential to develop into some sort of beautiful love story.

It...tried.

Jin has been in the industry for a long time; he's very popular, really doesn't care at all who he's paired with, and is - in the director/CEO's (?) words - a trash person. As in, he just doesn't care about anyone at all, and is basically making these films because he has no other skills or interests. Which frankly makes him kind of dull.

He gets paired up with a newer actor, Hikaru, in a "buddy" system where they film everything together to build a bond with their female-targeted audience. The CEO's dream is to turn them into an idol group (????) of porn stars (?????). So basically none of this is based in reality at all. Plus the part where Hikaru gets offered a legitimate indie film role based on uh. These videos he's been doing. Because that's how casting agents and directors find people.

Anyway, Jin and Hikaru have good physical chemistry, and it turns out that they've been living in the same building for a while. Jin discovers this one day when Hikaru has to call the police because someone broke into his apartment and left a dead cat in a bag. This escalates to his stalker - his former adult film partner - kidnapping and tying him up and trying to kill him. Which isn't even remotely the darkest part of the story.

Jin manages to rescue him by putting the pieces together through something he'd heard at work, and from that point on, he and Hikaru become good friends. Initially, it'd seemed like Hikaru was falling in love with Jin, so I settled in for that angsty storyline, but Jin was eventually the one to get upset about Hikaru moving on and leaving him.

Hikaru had been doing more hardcore videos on the side - and sleeping with their director, his older brother's former friend. Another guy he and Jin do a threesome video with turns out to also be working for this same guy, who lets it slip that Hikaru had killed his own brother when he was a juvenile. (So it's not technically on his record.) The guy gets jealous, I guess, even though Hikaru had been nice to him, and leaks the story anonymously online, so Hikaru quits.

After a while, Jin goes to see him, and they go to visit the guy who'd helped Hikaru kill his brother, who'd gone to jail for it because he was older and had been determined more responsible...even though he'd really just been taking the fall for Hikaru.

This was frankly such an incredibly weird plot twist. But it looks like the mangaka's debut story was about Hikaru and this boyfriend, Kanji, so all of that backstory just got crammed into this storyline where he became a porn star because of his traumatic background where his older brother and his friends had all sexually assaulted him for years.

Yeah it's uh. A choice. And then the CEO says well, you know, it's not like any of us in this industry have clean records, so it's fine if everyone finds out he was a murderer.

???

The other big problem with all of this is that Kanji never stopped being Hikaru's true love. Literally the only reason he even ends up with Jin is because Kanji had moved on, become a mechanic, and married a single mother whose boyfriend had been abusing her - so he'd already rescued someone else and was happy and living a decent life after he'd gotten out of prison.

Jin's attachment to Hikaru isn't really explained either. They're both continuing in the same industry, although Hikaru is jealous of all the contacts in Jin's phone and insists that he can't cheat on him in the real world, outside of what they do for work. Even though Jin's son says well, you know, he's just that kind of person, it's going to be hard to stop it.

Because yeah, Jin has a son via one of his previous female costars, who'd poked holes in their condoms so she could try to trap him into a marriage. Except he told her to get rid of the baby or at least sign a contract saying he never had to be in contact with his son.

I'm not sure what the point of his son was, except to kind of show that Jin was eventually trying to change a little and become a father. And also to inject a weird extra love triangle with the 14 year old son falling for Hikaru, watching the videos of him and his dad, and even convincing Hikaru to make out with him.

So nah. I should've just paid for the shipping. Learned for next time.

[The_noxbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se ha coronado como una de mis mangakas favoritas.
He amado cada página de este manga, y eso que la ambientación en la industria pornográfica no me va nada. Aún así, sentí cómo crecía su amor de una forma muy bella.

Ojalá licenciaran más trabajos suyos, cómo el omegaverse que tiene

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been officially translated by Futekiya, but I bought the Japanese manga because I needed a volume to fill in my shelf and I reckoned I can't go wrong with Marukido Maki.

And I didn't.

「目を閉じても光るは見えるよ」is about AV actors Jin and Hikaru. Jin is an AV veteran who's dabbled in gay videos before. He gets scouted by Mariko, an enterprising producer who saw there's a market for gay adult videos made for women. Mariko starts Cherry Bonbon, a gay AV division with male actors that appeal to female audiences. The actors get paired up in a buddy system where they're contracted to make videos only with these buddies.

Jin's buddy is Hikaru, who's kind of a super uke. The type of guy even straight men find erotic. They get along, their bodies are compatible, they've been working together for a while, but Jin doesn't really know much about Hikaru and Hikaru doesn't hang out with the rest of the staff either.

Honestly I was prepared for some heavy shit--which did get revealed towards the end--because of the title and the general melancholy look of the cover. But I did look at the first chapter (free on Futekiya!) and it was pretty spicy so I decided to take that risk anyway.

I like how structured the whole Cherry Bonbon thing is. The staff are nice, everyone's very professional, and being an AV actor in gay videos is treated like ... well, they're like minor celebrities with their own fan meets and the like. Is this something that can happen in real life? Probably not, but Marukido Maki lays down the ground rules in a way that's familiar to idol otaku or fujoshi, so the whole thing is a bit easier to believe. It's a job and their job is selling fantasies. Jin and Hikaru treat each other as (increasingly close) workmates, but we never actually see them get intimate in their private lives until much later. Like one chapter before the end kind of later. And I liked that. It gives the characters room to actually get to know each other better and also to respect each other's privacy.

Jin's attitude towards sex is also quite refreshing. He's known as the super seme once he joins Cherry Bonbon (one chapter has a joke where some viewers requested him to bottom for someone else, but Jin doesn't want to and Mariko tries to crowdfund his salary just to make him say yes), but he's also something of a yarichin who can get it up for almost anybody. He did have a harder time on his first gay video, but Hikaru helped him out. Hikaru asks him if he's straight and Jin's reply is sort of a 'well, what does straight even mean'. He's a really chill kind of dude.

Which is good because this story gets dark really fast 😅 Turns out there is a reason why Hikaru doesn't make an effort to get close to his workmates and once his secret is revealed, he decides to quit Cherry Bonbon.

We do have a happy ending and Hikaru (among others), finds a family at the end of it so overall good vibes with lots of spicy sex scenes. I liked all of the characters and had lots of fun with this.

[ℂ ✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Even If You Close Your Eyes, You Can See the Light" és un BL amb una trama i un rerefons de personatges força complexos. Aquest manga ens mostra la vida de dos actors porno que comencen un nou projecte en què faran de parella habitual en una sèrie de vídeos. La química que tenen és espectacular, tot i que un d'ells representa que jo no és gai (tampoc s'etiqueta com a hetero, diu que tot li està bé). Malgrat compartir tantes estones junts amb prou feines saben res de la vida de l'altre, però amb un gir de guió inesperat la relació serà cada cop més intensa. Enmig de tot el drama patina una mica, però crec que se li pot perdonar per ser un volum únic tan elaborat i profund, que va molt més enllà de les escenes hot per teixir una narració ben interessant.

[Michael McPherson III · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good balance of plot and sex scenes the ending is very sweet

[July · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.6
Pretty cool story ig

[⋆ ࣪˖ ִֶָ sel ་༘࿐ · Rating 3 out of 5]

That's surprisingly good? Also, the art, really good! It's such a refreshing way of telling a story. Thank you, this was interesting.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Original Review 2/26/2022*
Rating: 3.5*
Oh wow was not expecting this story to go as in depth as it did. Like it has a lot of layers and it was able to touch on everything without moving too fast or getting to messy. I love when these short stories feel like a whole series in just a few chapters. It just makes me feel like I'm really immersed in the story. It got a bit strange when the son was involved, but otherwise it was a really good story and I enjoyed the art style. It reminded me of Scarlet Beriko's art a bit and someone else's that I just couldn't quite place.

*Reread 07/03/2025*
Dropping my rating to a 3 because I didn't like it as much as I did the last time I read it. Honestly I don't remember reading this book at all lol, but the review is there. I really dislike everything that happened with the son and I did like the story at first, but I kind of lost steam midway through and just didn't really care about anything that was happening anymore.

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A messed up story. But I ate well. I wanted to reread this immediately.

The romance itself is very healthy, imo. I kind of appreciate that the characters didn't quit their jobs because they fell in love...more realistic.

Jin's son, Touma-kun? What're you doing young man? Author I am looking at you 👀

The flashback chapter felt thrown in there. Just like these comments.


Cw sex work, murder, sex tafficking, incest, dv/violence